From Deseret News archives:
States can design own NCLB plans
Utah wants to learn more before turning in its application
Now, the U.S. Department of Education is saying all states can apply to create a system officials are calling it a "growth model" that takes into account students' academic progress from one year to the next.
But State Superintendent of Public Instruction Patti Harrington is uncertain whether Utah will take up the invitation. The federal government once denied Utah's "growth model" proposal because it didn't hold schools accountable for how each group of students does on tests No Child Left Behind's central mission.
"We're finding out the perimeters that they are going to put around approval of growth models, then we'll confer with the (State) Board (of Education) ... and move on from there," Harrington told the Deseret Morning News Tuesday. But, she added: "I will not be an advocate of allowing schools to be labeled as a failure when only one student group" falls short.
But Utah schools already are entrenched, as are those in every other state, in the federal law's all-or-nothing judgements. So why not seize an opportunity to make it more fair and likely, let more schools make the mark every year?
No Child Left Behind requires all students to be able to read and do math well by 2014. Schools must answer for test scores of every group of students, created by ethnicity, disability, income and English language acquisition. If one student group fails to meet standards, the whole school fails to make Adequate Yearly Progress and is identified as such in public reports.
Utah has fought the law as intruding on state rights, and once threatened to refuse to participate, a move that would have left behind more than $100 million, which largely helps low-income children.
Meanwhile, Utah firmed up its own way of holding schools accountable for student achievement. Its U-PASS system gives schools credit for students making progress, especially for kids who have come the longest way, before judging whether they need help.
Recent comments
Good job, Jennifer. It takes some work to make sense out of this.
RRR
I read your article | Dec. 19, 2007 at 10:06 a.m.
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